


yours until two and two is three

by constantblur



Series: 2018 Writing Challenges [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Gross, Keithtober, M/M, klance got into some real Sappy Boi hours here, prompt: space and stars, stargazing snark and sap, the three most important S's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 00:03:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16252517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/constantblur/pseuds/constantblur
Summary: “Oh, right, I’m the unromantic one,” Keith says. Lance can’t see him since he’s leading the way down the hiking trail again, but he knows Keith rolled his eyes. “You just said I’m a dumpster-diving raccoon you want to have sex with.”“That is thepinnacleof romance,” Lance counters. “You’re a menacing garbage demon but I love you so much I still want to get naked with you. Come on, that’s the stuff of fairytales.”Lance and Keith stargaze and flirt.





	yours until two and two is three

**Author's Note:**

> based on the day eight (late aGAIN whoops) keithtober prompt: space and stars

They pack up the car with thermoses of coffee and hot chocolate, a box of donuts, a package of marshmallows, a cooler filled with sodas and sandwiches, the iPod speakers, an armful of blankets, and Keith’s telescope, and then they hit the road and keep driving until the city lights are out of sight.

Lance leads the way up the hiking trail, popping marshmallows into his mouth and tripping over everything in his path because he’s watching the sky instead. Keith peels off from the trail at the first sign of a decent clearing: more grass than rocks, with enough space to spread out a blanket or two. He perfunctorily snaps one of the blankets out and lets it float to the ground before dumping the rest of the supplies he’d been lugging up the hill onto it and scurrying a little ways off with his telescope. Lance groans and snarks after him about making a mess, but Keith just waves him off, focused on his task of getting his telescope set up and pointed where it might actually catch something.

The Draconids are out tonight. They’d caught a few glimpses on the drive over, but with true nightfall still a little ways off from blacking out the sky, it’s hard to catch much of anything yet. Lance thought he’d caught a lucky break when he heard this meteor shower tends to peak in the early evening, but when Keith started rambling about how this could be a special shower (“This might be a once-in-a-lifetime show, Lance, there could be hundreds more meteorites than usual because of the proximity of the parent comet—“ And then Lance zoned out), Lance knew what it translated to: _We are going to be out there all night_.

Lance is just relieved that Keith seemed content with going out this one night because really, if it were completely up to Keith, they’d be out here from dusk until dawn every night for the two weeks the meteor shower is in their orbit, determined to catch every single meteorite that streams through the sky. It’s lucky that Keith gets cold easily and isn’t inclined to go stargazing without his personal space heater. The personal space heater is relieved that he doesn’t lose a boyfriend to cuddle up with for two full weeks.

After organizing the clutter Keith had left on the ground, Lance gets his iPod and speakers set up and queues up the playlist Keith had made of “acceptable stargazing music,” which Lance has since translated as “music Lance can’t dance to.” One of these days, Lance will make it a point to show Keith that there is no music Lance can’t dance to, but he’ll let Keith keep his defective and frankly offensive opinion for the time being.

“All set,” Keith says, finally stepping back from his telescope. “The Draco constellation is brighter than usual tonight. I found the Eltanin star pretty easily.”

“That’s great, babe,” Lance says patiently. He hits play on the iPod and flops onto the blanket. “All set here too.”

Keith shakes his head, but there’s a smile on his face as he pours out some hot chocolate.

For the better part of two hours, Keith stays mostly glued to his telescope. Lance pointed out to Keith that every Googleable article he found about the Draconids had made it clear that telescopes were unnecessary and the shower could be better viewed by just lying back and watching the sky, but Keith still insisted on lugging the telescope along. It’s something of a game for him, Lance thinks: trying to catch every meteorite’s point of origin, being quick enough to watch it burst forth from the atmosphere and see it as clearly and up-close as he can before it disappears.

Keith eventually ambles over to the blanket, dragging the cooler over and unpacking his sandwich. Lance sits up to fish his out too, and they munch slowly on their dinner as they idly watch the sky. When the food is gone, Keith sprawls out beside Lance on the blanket instead of going back to his telescope.

“Slow night,” Keith sighs.

“Yeah,” Lance says. “Sorry, Keith.”

“It’s fine,” Keith says. “The Orionids peak in a couple weeks.”

Lance grins. “Best time of the year for you, huh? Lots of action happening out there in the cosmos in these last few months of the year. There’s, what, two more after Orionids?”

“Three,” Keith corrects. “Well, technically five. Leonids, Geminids, and Ursids are the best ones, but the Southern and Northern Taurids are worth checking out.” His face lights up. “Oh, did you see that one?”

“ _Everyone_ saw that one,” Lance laughs. “Shit, that was a legit shooting star. Did you make a wish?”

“Lance,” Keith scoffs.

“Well shut up, I’m gonna make mine,” Lance says, and squeezes his eyes shut like he’s concentrating.

Keith sighs, but Lance hears the fond amusement in it.

Music’s still pouring out of the speakers. The playlist Keith set up is mostly instrumental stuff that had only migrated onto Lance’s iPod after they moved in together, at which point there had been a slow and steady but completely unconscious process of casually integrating themselves into each other’s spaces and systems and DVD collections. Nothing Lance owns is really Lance’s anymore, and no one is more surprised than he is that he doesn’t care about that fact at all. Having traces of Keith in every part of his life—it’s what feels right. Even if it means he no longer knows half the songs on his iPod.

“I want to be out there,” Keith says, and the wistfulness in his voice makes Lance ache. “I wish I could see it all without the telescope.”

Lance knows. It’s why he never skips out on these stargazing trips or complains (much), even when it’s the middle of winter and he can’t feel his face. It’s why he never says no when Keith wants to go to the Air & Space Museum for the fifth time, the tenth; someday it’ll be the twentieth. It’s why Lance has seen probably every space-related thing on Netflix, whether they’re sci-fi series or documentaries.

It would’ve been hard enough for Keith to become an astronaut because of the colorblindness. It was the diagnoses from his therapist when he was 16 years old that truly grounded that dream.

“You must’ve been a star in a past life,” Lance says. “It’s why that”—he spreads his arms up and out, like he’s hugging the sky—“calls to you. You want to go home.”

Keith groans. “That is the corniest shit I’ve ever heard.”

“Maybe you’ll be back there in your next life,” Lance says as if Keith hadn’t interjected at all. “A new planet, a new moon, the asteroid that wipes out earth.” He laughs when Keith hits him in the side. “Maybe it’s corny,” he says, sobering, “but I hope you get back there someday. I think your soul would be happiest there.”

Keith turns his head and frowns at Lance. “You’re so stupid.”

Lance laughs again, but he knows it sounds forced. “Yeah. Sorry. That was really stupid.”

“Yeah,” Keith says. “Home? Out there?” His foot nudges Lance’s. “Without you?”

Lance turns to look at Keith and instantly mirrors his soft smile. “Well,” he says, “maybe you could be the new planet, and I’d be your moon.”

“Sounds pretty good,” Keith says quietly. And then his smile crooks into a teasing grin. “It’d kind of suck to never have sex again, though.”

That surprises a genuine laugh out of Lance. “All right,” he cackles, “no planets or other objects in space. You hear that universe?” Lance raises his voice. “My boyfriend wants to be able to have sex with me in our next lives, so bring us back _here_ , on planet earth, preferably as warm-blooded mammals.”

“Jesus, yell a little louder, I think some people on the other side of the state didn’t hear you,” Keith groans.

“Oh, relax, there’s no one out here but us,” Lance says.

Keith huffs and then falls silent, watching the sky again. Lance watches Keith for a while, until his sharp intake of breath makes Lance follow his gaze. Five meteors streak out across the sky, perfectly equidistant from each other as they shoot into different directions like something coordinated in a light show. Lance lets out a low whistle as they fade from view. He’s not as savvy on this stuff as Keith is, but he’s pretty sure that’s not something that happens a lot.

“Wow,” Keith breathes.

“Five wishes,” Lance says, and squeezes his eyes shut again.

“You are _so_ stupid,” Keith grumbles, but the fond amusement still comes out loud and clear.

Idle minutes pass as they stare up at the night sky, Keith occasionally lifting a finger to point out a constellation to Lance that Lance only pretends to be able to see. But he likes hearing Keith quietly talk about each one, the mythology behind it, which stars make it up, why he’s fascinated by it. Lance has probably heard it all half a dozen times by now, but god would he be content to keep on hearing it again and again, year after year, until the day he dies.

“Would you come find me?” Lance asks suddenly.

Keith turns his head to stare at Lance. “What are you talking about?”

“If—“ Lance pauses, biting his lip and no doubt radiating awkwardness. He’d blurted out the question without really thinking about it, and now that he’s had a second to actually think about it, he realizes how lame and embarrassing it is. But it’s out there now. “If we really do come back, you know, if there really is something like—reincarnation, or whatever. Do you think we could find each other again?”

Keith says nothing, just watches as Lance’s ears get steadily redder.

“I know it sounds stupid,” Lance says hastily. “I don’t know, I just—if I was here, again, without you, I think—I think I’d feel lonely.”

Keith reaches out across the blanket and pokes Lance hard in the side—and then he takes Lance’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “I’d come find you.”

Lance lets out a nervous laugh. “Even if I came back as a toad?”

“Even if you came back as a mayfly,” Keith says.

Lance grips Keith’s hand and finally turns his head to meet Keith’s gaze. “Nah, not a mayfly,” he says. “Twenty-four hours wouldn’t be enough.”

“No,” Keith says quietly. “It wouldn’t be.”

The constellations in the sky don’t matter half as much to Lance as the ones he’s memorized in Keith’s eyes.

“Come on,” Keith says, sitting up and tugging on Lance’s hand to follow him. “Let’s go home.”

“Already?” Lance blurts out with surprise. He scrambles up after Keith. “It’s still pretty early though, isn’t it?”

“It’s fine,” Keith says with a shrug. “It’s a slow night anyway. We’ll be back here in a couple weeks for the Orionids.” He walks over to his telescope and starts disassembling it.

Lance blinks after him before starting to fold the blankets he’d laid out in a thick pile for them. “Well okay then,” he says, feeling a little stupefied. Stargazing is almost always an all-night event. They’ve been out here for barely even four hours.

“Well,” Keith says, walking back with his telescope tucked away in its case, “you did just try to command the universe to let us keep having sex in our next lives, so I figure it’s gonna make you be a toad while I’ll be a hawk, just to spite us.” He picks up the iPod and turns it off before looking up, eyebrows raised pointedly. “Might as well go have sex while we’re still compatible.”

Lance nearly drops his armful of blankets. He’d thought that after living with Keith for almost two years, he’d developed an immunity to nonsense by now. Clearly, there’s no such thing when it comes to Keith.

“Wow, how romantic,” Lance sarcastically quips. “We’re _compatible_. I’m so turned on right now.”

Keith picks up the cooler and adjusts the strap over his shoulder. “Are you saying you don’t want to have sex?”

“For the record,” Lance says as he tucks the thermoses under his arms, “you would not be a _hawk_. You’ll probably be a raccoon and live in a dumpster. And I will be a beautiful, brilliant peacock. And yes I want to have sex, let’s go.”

“Oh, right, I’m the unromantic one,” Keith says. Lance can’t see him since he’s leading the way down the hiking trail again, but he knows Keith rolled his eyes. “You just said I’m a dumpster-diving raccoon you want to have sex with.”

“That is the _pinnacle_ of romance,” Lance counters. “You’re a menacing garbage demon but I love you so much I still want to get naked with you. Come on, that’s the stuff of fairytales.”

“I changed my mind,” Keith deadpans. “We’re not having sex tonight.”

“Keith.” Lance turns on the balls of his feet and comes to an abrupt stop in front of Keith. He glares sullenly, but Keith stops too. With a quickflash smile and a tilt of his head, Lance says, “You look like the universe decided it was tired of being so immense it compressed all of its beauty and complexity and wonder into a smaller form so it could make everyone around it feel like they were a part of the stars.”

Keith blinks.

Lance bites the insides of his cheeks to keep from grinning. Keith looks more perplexed than about to swoon, but at least he doesn’t look so surly anymore.

Keith clears his throat. “That’s—that was—uh.” His eyes are very wide. “That was a quote from something, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Lance says with a shrug. “But it fits you, so I memorized it.”

“Oh.”

Lance waits patiently for several beats, until—

“Let’s go.”

Walking fast to keep up with Keith’s quick pace, Lance lets the smug grin sit proudly on his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> the “you look like the universe” quote is not mine but i unfortunately can’t find the original source since googling failed me and i’m a big dumdum who didn’t save the source when i put the quote on a sticky note a million years ago. if anyone knows who the original author of it is and can provide me a link, i would greatly appreciate it!
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